Burri Jerome

Burri Jerome, Australian artist

Borne on the Kempsey Mission, Burri was hassled by both his demoralised elders and by whitefellas. He read widely. At the National Art School, Sydney, he trained as an artist. His works were exhibited widely in Australia and overseas. He was also an accomplished musician. During the Redfern riots, Burri was media representative. Around Nimbin, Burri was not accepted by local Bundjalung people. He was a major agent of black-white reconciliation. He died at Sphinx Rock on 21st April 2017.

Photography by John Wilson

  • Burri Jerome

    Burri Jerome

    Burri Jerome, a talented artist and musician, was born on the Kempsey Mission and later trained at the National Art School in Sydney. His works gained recognition both in Australia and internationally.

  • Early Contact

    Early Contact

    On my wanderings, I have snapped existing photographs of Aboriginal people taken around the times of early contact.

  • Rock Art

    Rock Art

    On my thirty years’ wanderings about the country, I snapped rock art whenever I found it.

  • Timbarra Photos

    Timbarra Photos

    Action against the Timbarra gold mine.

Writings by John Wilson

  • Singing Truth to Power for David McBride

    Singing Truth to Power for David McBride

    Last Sunday evening, 2nd March, 2025, I met John Shipton, the good father, whose fourteen-year international campaign, secured the release from Britain’s highest security prison at Belmarsh, and the return home to Australia of his son, Julian Assange of Wikileaks. In Canberra’s Central Business District, we met in the Dissent Café & Bar, for Singing…

  • Entheogens, ancient and modern

    Entheogens, ancient and modern

    From schooldays, we all recall that the very foundation of our Western culture is ancient Athens, a pinnacle of cultural achievement, pre-eminent in all the arts and sciences, including astronomy, medicine, architecture, sculpture, literature, music, statecraft and warfare, and inventing, history, theatre, philosophy, and democracy. Particularly since the eighteenth-century Classical Revival it inspired the West.…

  • Saving Wallum

    Saving Wallum

    Wallum is precious for its own sake. It has intrinsic value. It is one of the richest plant communities in the world, and supports birds, mammals, reptiles, frogs, insects, and marsupials, including our endangered, iconic Koala.

  • Ecocide

    Ecocide

    Our emerging ecological crisis is neither carbon dioxide, nor climate, but human psychology.

  • Five in hand

    Five in hand

    With the wind on my face, and sixteen aboard a heavy wooden coach, five-in-hand, all galloping in harness, with chains in their tack tinkling and jingling, and twenty steel-shod hooves striking the road in a cacophony of syncopated clatter, was well worth driving a thousand miles to experience!

  • Banjo and Matilda

    Banjo and Matilda

    Out of Townsville, over a low ridge, I enter the Lake Eyre Basin of our vast interior. For thousands of miles, I follow smooth clay wheel ruts on old stock routes along the Torrens Creek, the Barcoo, Thompson, Bulloo, Condamine, Paroo and Diamantina Rivers. Travelling slowly, I memorise for grandchildren ‘The Man from Snowy River’.…

  • Mail run to Urisino

    Mail run to Urisino

    Open-handed, Pete offered me the chance of driving his regular mail run, out west beyond Wanaaring, towards Tibooburra, and the South Australian border, then north west up towards the Hamilton gate through the dog fence into Queensland. 

  • The old telegraph line

    The old telegraph line

    Already past the point of no return on another adventure, I woke alert at 2:00 am, wondering under the stars what better preparations I might have made for six hundred kilometres along beaches and cliff tops of The Great Australian Bight, following the old telegraph line northeast from Esperance, the name of d’Entrecasteaux’s ship anchoring…

  • Osprey

    Osprey

    Walking cliff tops facing the Indian Ocean north of Broome, I halt in wonder at fireworks in the sky, an osprey going ballistic in my face. Bright sunlight on white underparts flashes alarm! And lo, on a jagged buttress jutting out across the beach from red cliffs, is her nest of many seasons piled high…

  • Timbarra

    Timbarra

    Michael Balderstone of the Nimbin Museum explained that ATSIC, (Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders Commission) was too mean to allow Aboriginal people petrol money to visit the Timbarra Plateau. They would show Ross Mining the sacred site to be spared by their proposed open cut cyanide gold mine, on wetlands, sourcing the Clarence River! Delighted,…

  • Mine Closure

    Mine Closure

    I left Melbourne abruptly to join David Heilpern, a dedicated young lawyer whose advocacy during the Timbarra campaign had been invaluable. Despite facing threats, David’s unwavering commitment to justice set groundbreaking legal precedents and embodied resilience amid adversity.

  • Moruroa – For Her Own Sake

    Moruroa – For Her Own Sake

    Challenging French nuclear testing in the Pacific 1995 – 1996. Free PDF download.

  • Kailas

    Kailas

    Mythical axis of the universe, citadel of the anti-orthodox, Kailas is the abode of old dark gods and Earth Goddesses.